K's Parents

I really hope Katherine's parents don't find out about this, but - according to Katherine - there was a HUGE rat hanging out by our table when we took them to Nam's village for Not Soup on Saturday night. (I never saw the rat, so she could be getting me back for telling her about the rat droppings in the bed in Thailand.)


Construction by the river has been going on ever since we got here, and the site has been slowly encroaching upon Nam's Village's Not Soup stand. We take a short cut along the back alley river road to get there, but now a deep hole has been dug right up to the edge, and it's bringing bad smells and, supposedly, big rats.


So we walked the long way around to get back to the castle. K doesn't think they saw it.

I haven't mentioned K's parents because before yesterday I had only met them for about five minutes at the castle door when I was coming in and they were going out. They will be in Vietnam for four weeks (then her dad will board a bicycle to Laos on his own), and are using the castle as a "resting" place between hops to some islands near HCMC, Hanoi and Halong Bay.

I am very happy because tomorrow night, Katherine's mom, Joan, has declared "fajita night." And I have a feeling that her dad, Tim (whom many of you recognize from the blog comments), will supply the beer. I was just downstairs when he commented on how great it was that we have a beer supplier on the other side of the alley (as he popped open another Tiger). Have I mentioned this detail as another neighborhood highlight yet?


Yeah, so many people want to cook for us in the castle. Anyone else?